2025 promises a packed schedule for Obsidian Studios. They kick off the year with the release of their critically acclaimed first-person fantasy RPG, Avowed, in February. July sees the debut of Grounded 2, the follow-up to their beloved “honey-I-shrunk-the-kids” survival game. To wrap up the year, Obsidian revisits the satirical space sci-fi setting with The Outer Wilds 2 in October.
It could be reasonable to worry that their busy launch plan might lead to sales competition between titles, but as stated by Brandon Adler, the game director of Outer Wilds 2, the studio appears unfazed by the prospect of competing against themselves.
During a conversation with PC Gamer at SGF 2025, Adler mentioned that following the decision to postpone Avowed from its initial release date of November 2024 to February 2025, there were discussions among Obsidian team members. Adler expressed, “We certainly discussed it. Thoughts like, ‘Are we releasing two major RPGs in the same year? What impact will that have on us as a studio? How might our reputation change?’
Ultimately, though, Adler said the timing actually worked pretty well.
Adler mentioned that we learned about the shipping date for the games a few months ahead of others. He believed this early knowledge allowed us to focus on enhancing Avowed, resulting in more polish and improvements. Essentially, he was saying the extra time was beneficial, and with Obsidian being at its peak, it’s an exciting year for our team.
With Grounded 2 adding another RPG to Obsidian’s duo, Adler expresses a sense of pride about the studio’s release schedule. “I can’t think of any other studio that’s managed to put out three games like ours in such quick succession,” Adler said. “And that’s something we should be proud of.
It appears The Outer Worlds 2 release date might not have been completely random, as there seems to be an interesting connection hinted at by Adler when he mentioned a line that didn’t make it into the GTA 6 dev direct. Given their size and the distinctiveness of our audiences, one could speculate whether we would have deliberately timed it differently, but only time will tell for sure.
The Outer Worlds 2 launches on October 29.
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2025-06-10 23:47